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Parolee once on death row arrested in mother's death, police say

A parolee once on death row for murdering two teenage girls has been arrested on suspicion of killing his mother, Vallejo police said.

Vallejo Police Lt. Jim O'Connell told the San Francisco Chronicle that Dennis Stanworth, 70, called authorities shortly before noon Wednesday and said he had killed his mother at his home.

When officers arrived at the house, Stanworth pointed them to "an area on the property where they discovered the deceased victim," O'Connell told the newspaper. The woman was tentatively identified as Nellie Turner Stanworth.

O'Connell said officers also found evidence that a crime had occurred and arrested Stanworth on suspicion of murder. O'Connell declined to say how the victim died.

Stanworth was convicted of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and shooting two girls, ages 14 and 15, in Contra Costa County, and was sentenced to death in 1996, the Chronicle reported. That sentence was later reduced to a life sentence, O'Connell said, and Stanworth was paroled and required to register as a sex offender.